1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to stationary, people-accommodating structures, and more particularly, to a unique and aesthetic burial facility which includes a rigid burial housing in which the remains of deceased persons may be interred, and in which those activities of the living which involve association with the dead, such as the conducting of funeral services and visitation of the last resting place, can be carried out.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Today there exist two basic types of burial facilities utilized as a repository for the remains of those who have departed this life. In the more traditional cemeteries, the remains of the deceased are usually deposited in a casket or container and placed in the earth below ground level. In the other type of widely used burial facility, a mausoleum structure which provides above-ground crypts for the entombment of earthly remains is utilized as the last resting place often selected for interment. Perhaps one of the most obvious disadvantages of cemetery earth-type burial facilities is the very considerable area which is required to accommodate relatively few interments. In the most conventional and widely used type of cemetery facility, a single interment will require approximately 40 square feet of land surface area. Another undesirable aspect of below-ground type burials in outdoor grave sites is that it is frequently uncomfortable or even impossible to visit the gravesite to pay respects to the departed due to inclement weather. Moreover, in many instances, the alleged perpetual care accorded by maintenance personnel and the managing facility is of relatively short duration, and the burial plots or cemeteries become overgrown or unkempt in a relatively few years. Finally, for those individuals who experience a deep concern for the protection and preservation of the earthly remains of a deceased loved one, the earth-type burial does not, considering the average construction of the modern casket, afford significant protection to the remains from the elements, and from normal temperature changes of substantial magnitude occuring from season to season.
Interment in crypts of the type provided in most presently available above-ground mausoleums does, of course, afford the advantage of providing a temporary protective site for the last resting place of the deceased where those who wish to pay their respects may come and do so in inclement weather. The construction of many mausoleum burial facilities, however, has not made adequate or satisfactory provision for the preservation of the remains of the deceased and, though such occasions may rarely occur, the necessity or desirability of disinterment for purposes of effecting transfer of the remains of the deceased to another resting place has often been a very shocking experience. In some mausoleum constructions, adequate assurance against the infiltration of seepage of moisture and water into the burial crypts has not been provided, nor has adequate drainage from the structure been included to prevent, not merely an unsightly and distasteful setting for visitation, but so as to prevent an actual health hazard to the surrounding community. Further, the circulation of air through the crypts results in accelerated deterioration and decomposition of the bodies there interred.
Neither of the types of burial facilities described usually provides any sort of integrated interment facilities with accommodations for conducting final services honoring the deceased immediately prior to interment. With cemeteries, there may be chapels provided on the situs of the cemetery, but it is still frequently necessary to walk or drive some distance to reach the gravesite. Most mausoleum structures, on the other hand, are not of sufficient size and do not provide the decor appropriate to the conducting of last services within the mausoleum structure.